Bobby Flay Everyday!: Game Hens

Welcome to Bobby Flay Everyday!

I am not an expert. I have never even taken a class. I have no formal training - but I love to grill. I love the food off the grill and I just like the idea, the fun and the relaxation of grilling. So naturally Bobby Flay is a hero. I have his books, I watch his shows and I try out his recipes. So my idea is to grill one of Bobby's grilling recommendations everyday and see how it goes. Bobby Flay Everyday!

The idea to grill and blog is not original. Julie Powell wrote a blog that became a book and then a movie when she cooked all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But this is not French Cooking - this is backyard, after work, tailgate, American male grilling. I grill outside in a man-cave in every kind of weather. There is no "grilling season" for me - its everyday, year-round. We will skip around through Bobby's books and TV shows and grill what we like. But grilling is more than food, its an experience - so we will also report on what music we listened to or what ball game was on while we were grilling. We will keep track of what we were drinking during the grilling and later with the food. I'll try to figure what went wrong when we fall short of Bobby's perfection and pass on any tips I know about or discover along the way. Maybe it will give others some ideas as well.

The photo is of me and two of my brother-in-laws roasting the Thanksgiving turkey on the grill last year. That's me on the far right. In real life I am a college professor and pilot. I have written 12 books, but they were all about flying - here we write about grilling. We write about Bobby Flay Everyday!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Game Hens

Cornish Game Hens with Sausage-Wild Rice from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook (page 145)! I know what you are thinking. Isn't Cornish Game Hens a little to high-brow for Bobby Flay Everyday? I thought about that and determined that it was okay because, 1) it is a Bobby Flay recipe and 2) I grilled these guys over an open fire on a turning spit - not in an oven. They did turn out great, but really that wild rice was the star of the show. I started by grilling chopped opnion in canola over in the pan on that upper grate. Then I added sausage chunks, then chicken stock and brought it all to a boil. The cooked wild rice came next with garlic, thyme, more stock and feta cheese. I basted the hens as they turned throughout their grill time with butter and added kosher salt and ground pepper. The hens were done when the internal temperature reached 130 degrees. I cut the hens just like a chicken when I took them off the spit - then piled on that cheese-sausage-wild rice.

Getting ready for the next round of NCAA.

Here is part of my bracket. As you can see, it is a disaster! But I am not alone. I saw that 5.4 million people filled out an electronic bracket on the ESPN site, but going into todays games, only 54 people have a perfectly correct bracket! 54 out of 5.4 million - that means only .00001% are correct. Or said another way, I am among the 99.9999% (including the President) whose bracket has been busted. Two of my Final Four picks, including my pick for National Champion, are still alive - so we will see how it all turns out.

More Hoops and Grill fires on the way!

Paul